Her breath shuddered before she leaned in to kiss his parted lips.

It wasn't at all like she imagined it would be. She could taste the blood from his lips and feel the swollen cuts on them. His breath was shaky as he leaned to deepen it. Her hands moved from the sides of his face to the back of his head, caressing the short hair behind his pierced ears.

She wouldn't change a thing about it.

Levi opened his eyes and looked at her longingly when she broke the kiss.

None of them knew what to say. Petra noticed his phone on the ground and without thinking too much, she stood up and went to pick it up.

"The screen is broken, I'm sorry." She said handing it to him.

"Stop apologizing." He responded calmly and took it.

Petra decided to call Hange when he sat on the ground. "Listen, um…there was an accident, and we need your medical skills. Mhm. Yes. We're at the staff's parking lot at the back. Ok, wait."

She turned to look at Levi who was back to watching the ground below him.

"Do you want to go to the hospital?"

"No."

She sighed and averted her eyes again.

"No, we will just wait for you here. Bye."

Petra put down her phone and shuddered at the cold breeze. She went back to his level which made him raise his head. He was looking at her for a moment before he took the handkerchief out from the pocket of his shirt and held her jaw in place with his free hand while carefully wiping the traces of blood from her lips.

It took her a second to understand what he was doing, so when he released her, she took it from him and used a clean side to carefully do the same to him. He let her do that.
She could feel his stare fixated on her face the whole time.


The atmosphere at the parlor the next day was different from usual. Especially where there was no trace on Levi, and they couldn't bring themselves to go and disturb him in this situation. They sat together at the couches intended for waiting clients, when there were none and caught up on what happened. Petra left out the fact that she knew the man who assaulted their boss. They were fired up, especially Oluo who was pissed that he didn't go with them back then. The whole group went silent hearing the front door opening.

Instead of a client, Levi was standing there. He looked like someone who got hit by a car the other day. There was a dark bruise at his cheekbone and some scratches on the other side of his face. He had a wound dressing on his forehead as well as a bandaged wrist and some of his fingers. There was a paper bag in his hand.

"I bought a cake for the coffee. You can get some if you want." He announced with a bored tone and headed right to the break room.


It was a good day after all.

Petra wasn't sure why, but for some reason she didn't feel awkward about what happened between them the day before. Maybe it was just her drunk brain, maybe it was the emotional atmosphere that accompanied them. Despite all of that, the brief memory of his lips was lingering in her mind.

He acted normal, and she assumed that he didn't remember, or maybe it was just normal for him to get kissed like that. She believed he was pretty popular with his looks and the mysterious attitude. She didn't let herself feel hurt, nothing bad happened after all. Well, at least not between them.

She met him in the break room when she had some free time after her last client. She wanted to finally try some cake.

He noticed her with the corner of his eye while brewing tea.

"You want some?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"No, thanks, I'm going to get some coffee in a moment." she responded with a smile and stopped at his side to get the plate from the shelf, unaware of his gaze that didn't leave for a second.

He stepped back and a moment later she heard the sound of closing doors. She looked back wondering where he could go in the middle of making his drink, but, to her surprise, he was leaning against the door.

She raised her eyebrows thrilled by his intense stare. Should she be worried? Or stressed? It was hard when all she felt was excitement in a very inappropriate way for the circumstances they were in.

"So." he started, feeling way more awkward than she could have guessed. "Did you contact your big boy after yesterday?"

She was so shocked by his question that it took her a moment to even turn around to him. Was that a joke? From him? This was insane.

"Why would I?" she asked slowly, starting to feel more and more uncomfortable with each moment.

Levi tilted his head a bit, delaying his answer.

"He said some things about the kind of relationship you had."

Petra took a breath while lowering her arms.

"And for what reason did you decide to listen?" she asked, trying really hard to not sound hurt. "Why do you even care? It's not your business." she added quickly before he opened his mouth.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked, pushing himself away from the door. He started to slowly walk in her direction.

"Maybe." she responded trying to act confident. He may have been her boss, but he crossed the line the moment he mentioned her private life.

"Do you want me to beat him up again?" he continued with an unchanging expression.

"No. I don't support violence." she said, but her expression was visibly less sure.

"Okay. But don't contact that fuck anymore. For your own sake."

The blood boiled in her veins as she stepped forward to him.

"Are you giving me orders? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I simply give you advice."

"This is a very inappropriate behavior." she accused him.

"Is that so?" he lowered his eyelids.

She nodded in response, not letting him intimidate her.

"And you, kissing me, counts as an appropriate behavior?"

She opened her mouth, but no sound escaped them.

"This…" she started raising her hand to warn him with her finger. "This was a mistake, I was drunk as hell."

"You're such a bad liar, Petra." he said with a tired tone.

"I'm telling the…" she started to explain in panic, but the feeling of his fingers delicately grabbing her chin cut her words.

"Go on. I'm listening."

She was stunned, unable to escape the trap of his blue eyes.

"I was…saying that…'' her eyes took a peek at his lips.

"Yeah, just as I thought." he sighed and came closer.

She closed her eyes at the exact moment their lips met. He let go of her chin and put his hand on the lower back of her head to tilt her head for their mutual comfort.

Petra expected him to be harsh, but she was met with tenderness that melted her heart. She grabbed his shirt to pull him closer. As her mind was clearer than the first time, she could feel every sensation, including the cold steel of his snake piercing.

They parted quickly, hearing the sound of opening doors. Gunther and Oluo came in discussing something loudly.

Levi wasn't sure why he reacted that way. Maybe it was the light push of her hands that made him backend so quickly. He had no reason to be embarrassed after all. And he really wasn't, but it looked like she was more concerned at the sole thought of being caught with him. This thought really sucked. He went back to brewing his tea from the beginning, acting like nothing had happened.

"Do you want some cake, guys?" Petra asked louder than she intended. There was a big smile on her face.


For the first time Petra felt relieved when her client called to cancel their tattoo appointment. It was only 3PM, and it was supposed to be her last for today. She started organizing her workplace.

She didn't see Levi much after their break room encounter. It looked like he had some personal stuff to do because he spent most of the day upstairs.

The number of different emotions she felt at that moment was overwhelming. The memory of their kiss was much clearer now, and she could swear she could still feel the ghost of it on her lips.

On the other side the single thought of whatever the hell Levi and Dieter were talking about, thrilled her. She was too afraid to even ask how did that happen, and which of her past mistakes were already out for Levi to use against her.

She shook her head which caught Oluo's attention, but she didn't notice, too absorbed by her thoughts.

It alerted her how her mind automatically assumed the worst from him. She had no reason to think this way, but it still made her anxious. The more she thought about it the more she wanted to just go home and distract herself. Flee and avoid having to talk with him.

"Are you ok?"

Petra's head perked up to see her ashy-haired friend.

"Oh…yeah, I think I'm just thinking too much about yesterday. I'm not used to situations like that." she lied putting a smile on her face.

"Well, it's no point to worry about it now." Oluo noticed and shrugged. "We can grab some coffee after work if you want to talk about it." he suggested, looking away.

"If I get one more coffee today my heart is going to explode." she stated and patted his arm reassuringly. "Thanks, I'll be fine."

"Petra."

They both looked in the direction from where the low voice was coming from. Levi was standing at the end of the stairs. She tensed a little, but she couldn't say where that was coming from. The unpredictability of the situation between the two of them was scaring her.

"I will do your next tattoo."

She opened her mouth, but no sound escaped from it. A frown appeared on his face.

"Do you accept?"

"Yes! Yes, I do! Of course." she responded suddenly flooded with excitement.

"Good. Let's talk this through tomorrow." he said and proceeded to go back to his apartment.

Gunther got out of the break room and stopped in his tracks seeing all of his coworkers stunned.

"Why do I feel like I just witnessed a proposal…?" Eld asked with his hand still in the air half-way to the drawer.

"Huuh?!" Oluo looked at him shocked. "This is so unfair! Petra, do you know how long am I waiting for my turn?"

The short-haired girl was still staring in the stairs' direction, not reacting, until she laughed happily and turned to pat his arm yet again.

"Well, maybe our dear captain has favorites." she joked as the blush raised on her face.


Levi lay down on his bed and looked through the window. He had a perfect view of the clear night sky. It was after 1AM already, but he wasn't even tired. He closed his eyes and the memory of her blushing face came back to him. Sighing, he opened them again and reached for his phone.

"you're gonna be the death of me." he typed before pressing backspace.

Romance was never a problem in his life. Probably because he never felt like he wanted it, but that was a different conversation. He couldn't say he liked it. It would be much better if he could just state, "We are together now", and move on with his life. The fact that the attraction to her that he bottled up for months was out now, was a pain in the ass. It was all her fault after all because she was the one who actually made a move. He honestly didn't expect that.

"any ideas on the project?" he typed instead and sent it to her. He was surprised to see the speech bubble appear on their chat.

"Absolutely! It will be hard to pick only one."

"what the hell are you doing up at this hour?"

He sighed when the UNO reverse card picture appeared on his screen.

"this is not funny."

"It is. A little. (◕ᴗ◕✿)"

"no."

"Are you worried about me?"

He grunted and sat up to look down through the window at the empty street.

The screen of his phone lit up again.

"Sorry, it was a strange thing to say."

"i am." He typed and watched the screen with a blank expression seeing that this time it was her who didn't respond right away.

"You don't have to. I'm fine :)"

"great, then go to sleep. dark circles don't suit you."

"On my way! And you too."

Levi put his phone down on the windowsill and lay back down. Guess it was worth a try.