Petra woke up in the middle of the night screaming. She could feel the cold sweat dripping down her back before she even realized she was sitting. Her heart was beating fast, as she reached for her phone with a sense of a panic she could not explain.

There was only one thing on her mind, she had to make sure he was safe.

White noise accompanied her when she waited for him to pick up.

"Hello?" Levi's voice echoed inside her head and she couldn't stop the tears.

"ARE YOU OK?!" she asked, not even aware that she was screaming.

"What? Why-"

She choked on her tears, trembling.

"I'm so sorry, I couldn't do it, I've failed you and…"

"Petra, what the hell is happening?" She could hear the anxiety in his voice.

"I'm so scared." she cried and abruptly ended the call.

She fell back on her bed and covered her eyes with her forearm. She couldn't think straight, she couldn't even tell what was happening. All she knew was the strong emotions of panic, regret and fear. She felt like her head was about to burst.

The ringing of her phone brought her back to reality. She didn't check who was calling, she already knew.

"Where are you?!" His tone was firm.

"I'm home."

"Number?"

"Wh…what?" she asked quieter, having trouble thinking straight.

"What's the number of your flat, stupid." he hurried her up.

"It's five." she said and grit her teeth, holding back yet another wave of tears.


Isabel and Farlan were both looking at him with surprised expressions when he turned around from the window in his apartment and put his phone back to his pocket.

"I have to go, you two stay here." He basically ordered them before they could even ask what was happening.

"We can help, just-" Farlan started, but was cut short by Levi's sharp stare.

"Don't." he only said, before running down the stairs with his jacket in hand.

He drove way too fast on his way to her house. Fortunately, there were barely any other cars in the streets. Of course, he remembered her address despite being there only once.

The amount of scenarios that were running through his head did not stop him from being composed. It was something he would learn throughout the years. To act, not to feel.

One thing was certain, she was in danger and clearly couldn't talk. Whatever it was, he felt it was somehow related to him, and with his questionable past, he couldn't ignore it.


She jumped out of her bed when she heard a creek of the door from the entrance to her house. Still deep in her unknown distress, she was brought back to reality. She never left her flat open. The moonlight coming through the window was the only source of the light in her room at the moment. Before she could decide on what to grab to defend herself, the burglar was already at her opened door.

She gasped at the sight of the familiar face.

"You're-" she started agitated, but Levi shushed her coming closer.

"Are you hurt? Is there somebody in the other room?" he asked quietly, staring intensely into her eyes.

They were wide open. This could not be happening. She felt dizzy, like she was about to collapse. She steadied herself by holding his arms just above his elbows. She took a moment to respond.

"I'm... I'm fine. I don't think so, no."

He was looking at her in disbelief. Petra released him from her grip. He had never seen her even close to the state she currently was in. It was hard for him to process what was happening.

"Why did you call me?" he asked, hiding the knife he was holding out of her view. He was quick to notice that she wasn't fully awake.

"I had this dream…"

"A dream?" The irritation started to arise within him.

"There was this forest and... I don't know. I think I died." she responded, looking down.

He was about to reprimand her for scaring him like that and wasting his time, but he had noticed she was shaking and the new tears were running down her face. This was a very weird situation. They weren't even that close, and he was shitty with girls crying on him like that.

"It was just a nightmare, go back to bed." he said awkwardly, lowering his voice to not stress her anymore. Years of dealing with the overly emotional Isabel finally proved to be good for something.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and nodded. He had to direct her in the right direction before she actually moved.

"And to think you had the audacity to call me a child." he muttered, fixing her blanket when she got under it.

It was a pain for him to see a bed in such a messy state.


Petra let out an ugly grunt while sitting up on her bed in the morning. She had such a realistic dream, and it looked like it was the reason she felt so tired despite her sleeping for the whole night. She raised a hand to massage her nape a little. It didn't hurt but something about it made her feel uneasy.

She checked the time on her phone, and seeing that she still had plenty of it before going to work, she lazily got up. It was raining again, but at least it was still sunny.

She was startled by a noise coming from the kitchen. The first thing that came to her mind was that she'd had forgotten to close the window.

She ran there, hoping it was not totally flooded by now. The moment she reached the room, she froze at the sight of a man standing on a chair and dusting the chandelier. He noticed her and frowned. It was clear that his face was judgmental, even though most of it was covered with a bandana.

"I can't believe you live like this." he said looking down at her.

She was out of words.

"What are you doing in my house?" she asked with a terrified look on her face.

He uncovered his face before giving her a response.

"Making sure that you won't cause me another heart attack." he said without much emotion put into it. He noticed her questioning look, but was quickly distracted by her shirt that moved way too low when she was sleeping and revealed a big part of her cleavage. He tapped himself in the same place with his finger, just to let her know without mentioning it.

She covered herself with a fast move and then realized that a huge part of her dream was not actually a dream at all. Her pale face went red.

"Oh my god. I am so sorry, Levi, I don't even know... I can't explain what has got into me." she said, absolutely embarrassed.

"Yeah, that was crazy." he agreed. It didn't look like he was about to come down. "I'm not gonna lie, I had different plans than babysitting you."

Petra leaned on the entrance and raised her hand to the bridge of her nose.

"Can I...get you a coffee for that or something?"

"You bring me coffee for free." he pointed.

She glanced at him with a look of resignation.

"Then how can I compensate for it?"

"I don't know yet. I will let you know." he decided and finally stepped down from the chair, so they were at the same eye level. She sighed.

"Will you stay for breakfast, then?"

"I can." he agreed and moved the chair back to its place.


She wondered how he could act so casually in circumstances like that. It was the first time he was there, too. He was on his phone, head resting on his hand.

She put down a plate with scrambled eggs in front of him and sat down next to him.

"Wait, were you even sleeping?" She asked suddenly.

"Yes." he just said and put his phone down beside the plate.

"Where?"

"On the chair."

Petra let out a sigh.

"At least I'm not the only crazy one here." she said, feeling maybe a bit too comfortable in his presence after what happened.

There was no response, as he just started eating.

"We have weird luck for strange encounters at night, huh?" she pointed out after a while, smiling to herself.

"What do you mean?" he looked up at her.

"You know, last time you kind of made a pillow out of me." She said, recalling that he rested his head on her shoulder the other night. "And now...well." She spread out her hands a little, to show the situation they were in.

He was looking at her with his intense stare.

"What are you talking about?"

"Ahh-" She let out suddenly, realizing that he could've been too tired to remember that. "I phrased that wrong, forget about it." She was fast to add.

There was a frown on his face now. That was awkward. It sounded like some kind of harassment to him, as her boss, but she didn't seem bothered.

"If I do something wrong next time, just hit me."

Petra couldn't restrain a laugh. The sound of it calmed his nerves.

"It's hard to imagine." she said, amused.


"Are you going to ask me to drop you off a street away or something?" He asked on their ride to the parlor.

Petra tilted her head back and let out a light laugh.

"No...I don't want to cause you any more trouble." she assured calmly. After all the embarrassment, the morning itself was really enjoyable. They chatted a little, she scolded him for breaking the lock to her house, he suggested that he would pay for the new one, but guilt got to her and they had a little fight over who would do that. He'd won.

They were met with questioning stares of their friends, when they entered the studio.

"Sorry! No coffee today." Petra said, smiling, and went straight to the break room to leave her stuff there. Levi on the other side went straight towards the stairs. He didn't say anything, but he was crawling out of his skin from not taking a shower all this time since yesterday.

Just before he started going up, he noticed Eld's amused look and stopped.

"What?"

"Nothing, sir." he said fast and looked back at the computer screen on the desk in front of him.

"Oi, if you have something to say, say it." Levi stated, tired of this childish behaviour.

"It's nothing. I just noticed that a lot of things started to change since Petra joined us. I wouldn't say that's a bad thing." he responded with a tone that couldn't give Levi a reason to get irritated.

Dark haired man huffed, brushing it off, and headed to his apartment.


Petra was focused on the tattoo she was doing on some girls' backs, so she didn't pay much attention when she heard that someone had entered the studio. She was just enjoying the warmness of the sun coming through the window and let herself get immersed in her work.

"Hi there." said Eld, standing up from the sofa where he was working on some new project and went to the counter to check the list of appointments. "Are you here to Auruo?"

"No. I'm here to make an appointment, actually." the blonde girl said in a flat tone.

Petra raised her head to look in their direction.

"Rico!" she said loudly enough to startle the girl she was tattooing. She apologized quickly and only sent her friend a smile. This was a surprise for sure.

Rico only looked in her direction and nodded her head as a greeting, then looked back at the man in front of her. She was wearing her business clothes, a beige colored women's suit. "I want to talk with Levi." she announced.

"Hmm, you know, he doesn't really do walk-ins. You will have to sent him an email with your idea first and-"

"Just let me talk to him, 5 minutes." She cut him off and her way of speaking made him doubt if it was about tattoos at all.

"Ok, I will get him then." he decided with a confused frown and went upstairs to knock on his door.

Petra looked up again, but only for a moment.

"You didn't say you wanted one, I'd do it for you as a gift." She let her know, but the blonde did not respond. She noticed the questioning look of Gunther and just shrugged at him. She was suspicious of her friend.

They heard the steps of two people going downstairs. Eld went right back to the sofa while Levi stopped at the last step. His hair was thrown back and still a little damp after the shower.

"So, it is you." She said folding her arms. "I should've figured."

"Rico Brzenska." He said, stepping down.

They were looking at each other with terrifyingly similar cold stares. Even Petra's client tilted her head to see what was happening.

She sighed and put one hand on the counter.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Bright as ever. I'm here to make an appointment."

Levi raised an eyebrow and nodded in the direction of his office before heading there.