Notes:

*peek* Uhm yeah hello, sorry this took so long :')
Before that, I want to say thank you for all of your amazing support to this story! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL OF THE SUPPORT YOU GAVE TO ME! Like, I love y'all so much. I'm so grateful that I could share my LeviHan journey with all of you guys :')
Check the end notes for my replies to your comments!

ANYWHO, HERE YOU GO, CHAPTER 8!
Happy reading!

DISCLAIMER:
Shingeki no Kyojin / Attack on Titan belongs to Hajime Isayama

CHAPTER 8: RAIN

Rain.

Hange loves rain.

She loves how the sound of droplets of water pattering against the windows and the sound of clouds colliding and rumbling against each other are able to make her feel relaxed and secured.

Even in a storm with loud thunder and bright lightning.

She believes that the world would be renewed after the rain. Be it the ground, the plants, the body of water, and even the sky. It feels as if the rain cleaned out the impurities out of the earth.

Not to mention that the sky would burst with seven colors of wonders everytime the rain stopped, celebrating the blessing that the rain had brought or celebrating that the rain had passed.

So, what more can you not love from rain?

Hange loves rain.

Except when she had to walk in the rain with no umbrella.

Truthfully, this wasn't that bad. It gave her a sense of nostalgia from the time where she used to play in the rain, which was quite a long time ago.

But then, she would prefer to relive her nostalgia with at least a bit more of dignity.

Yes.

Let's step back a bit, shall we?

Hange woke up to a bright and sunny July's morning after days of rain. Thus, she intended to visit an optician to replace her lenses, a task that she procrastinated for quite a while.

She didn't notice how bad her vision had got until she couldn't differentiate Moblit and Abel from afar.

So, she went to the city while Mikasa had her daily nap.

Usually, Moblit would always remind her to take an umbrella everytime she goes out, saying that it never hurts to be prepared during this season.

He's right, of course.

Unfortunately, Hange being the way she is, will either forget to bring the umbrella or will choose to not bring the umbrella at all.

For today's case, it was the latter. Hange was certain that it would not be raining today.

That was her first mistake, because, as soon as she arrived at the optician, a big storm immediately hit the town.

Luckily, she was able to take shelter inside the shop. Not only that, she also got the chance to have a long chat with the lovely optician that reminded her a lot of her late grandfather. So, she spent an hour talking with the optician while waiting for the rain to stop.

Then, after the rain had stopped, Hange decided to bid her goodbye and went back on her way to the manor. The optician offered to lend Hange his umbrella, but Hange refused, saying that the sky should have enough rain for one day.

That was her second mistake.

Five minutes into her walk, she felt a droplet of water hit her face.

Two droplets.

Three droplets.

Then, it was raining, but not the kind of drizzle one that slowly increased into a big one. No, it was raining heavily right from the start.

She immediately ran toward a nearby shop and stood under the canopy. She debated on asking for a shelter inside the shop, which turned out to be a shoemaker shop, but looking at how grim the shop was and how scary the shopkeeper was, she decided to stay outside.

Unsurprisingly, that was her third mistake.

Hange was minding her own business in the cramped little space under the canopy when suddenly a carriage went in front of her at full speed.

It's not like she got hit by it, no, she's still pretty much alive.

The thing is, the carriage went with a full speed on a concrete road that was filled with puddles of rain water.

Hange couldn't think of anything when she got splashed by water.

And, it was not a shy and playful kind of splash.

It was a kind of splash that could kill.

She could only scream.

The carriage didn't seem to care though. If any, she only gained people attention.

"Would you look at that?" is probably what they thought as they walked with their umbrella, as if mocking her. She couldn't blame them though, she would also laugh at her.

A screaming lady drenched in a wet dress is probably something they'd never imagine would see in town.

Hange sighed.

After contemplating her life choice up until that point, she decided to do something that any sane person would do, and that is to walk in the rain.

Yes.

Well, might as well go for it.

It didn't take long until her whole body became wet and heavy from the rain water. She ignored the look she got from everyone, and chose to take confident and steady steps toward the manor.

But then, she forgot that the road toward the manor was not full on concrete. She had to walk through the soil of the forest to get there, and if she learned anything from school, soil mixed with water will create mud.

Great.

So here she was, walking in the rain while trying to make through the muddy road. Her straw hat was wet and on the edge of breaking down, her boots were sticky with mud, and her dress was wet, dirty, and heavy.

Fortunately, the rain had gradually gone away, leaving only small drops of water.

Unfortunately, the lack of pouring rain water made her able to feel the breeze that ran past her. She started to shiver, she hugged herself while trying to rub back warmness into her.

At the time of this, she could only think about one person, Moblit.

Hange chuckled as she imagined how hysteric Moblit will be when he found out about this. No, he was already screaming right now, she could feel it. He will definitely nag her for not listening to him. Not only him, everyone will, especially the poor maids who have to clean after her.

But first, she had to make sure she arrived at her destination.

She continued her journey which was still halfway through. She couldn't wait until she could be out of this sticky and damp situation. But, each of her steps became such an agonizing task for her, especially with how hard it's for her to see from her wet glasses. The walk felt longer and tiring than usual, she wasn't even sure if she could make it out alive.

So, when she heard a carriage coming from behind her, she immediately wanted to jump into it and asked for a lift. Although, looking at her appearance now, there's no one who would share a closed carriage with her. They would probably think that she is crazy.

Hange ignored the passing carriage as it went past her, but then, the carriage immediately halted not far from her. She stopped from her track as the carriage's window opened and a head emerged from the inside.

Even though she couldn't see clearly who the person was, she still recognized that voice.

"What the hell happened to you?" The person asked in his usual cold tone, but Hange noticed a slight difference in his speech, because as soon as she heard him, she felt a slight warmness spreading through her.

"Mr. Ackerman?!" Hange widened her eyes, "I thought you wouldn't be at home until tomorrow?"

It was still Friday in the afternoon, so he was clearly ahead of the usual schedule.

"I have a meeting with my Estate Agent this evening," He answered.

"Oh, I see."

. . .

Hange tightened her hands around herself and looked at anywhere but him, she didn't know what to do. Should she leave first or should she wait for him?

. . .

"Come in."

Hange peeked and glanced back at him, "Yes?"

"You heard me."

Hange raised one of her brows. She couldn't believe his offer. The thing is, it was a big no for an unmarried man and woman to ride together in a closed carriage. Furthermore, sharing a carriage with him is something she didn't want to do.

"A-are you serious, sir?" Hange asked in a low voice.

"Do I need to spell it to you? Come on, move your ass inside." He raised his voice.

Hange slowly walked toward the carriage and stopped as soon as she arrived near the door, "I can't possibly go inside, I will ruin the interior."

"Seriously? That's your concern?" He asked in disbelief before moving his attention to the person sitting at the driver seat, "Hey you, do you mind if this lady went in to ruin your carriage?"

The driver, who was draped in a long raincoat, jolted in his seat and stammered, "Uh… sir…"

Mr. Ackerman let out an exasperated sigh, "Listen, I'll pay you twice the fee."

Hange opened her mouth to protest but she was halted by the sudden movement from the driver who jumped from his seat and opened the door for her. The driver offered his hand to help her go in, but Hange ignored it, instead she gave her employer a piercing gaze.

"I can't let you do that!" She said firmly, but he didn't seem to be affected by her.

"So, what do you want me to do? Leave you?"

Yes!

That's what she wanted to say, but she couldn't form the words in her mouth, especially not with how genuine he sounded while telling her that...

"Not a chance." He continued.

It was honestly infuriating.

Hange gritted her teeth and closed her eyes before finally taking the driver's hand to help her went inside the carriage, murmuring sorry and excuse me. She mouthed thank you to the driver as she settled down to sit in front of her employer. She took off her hat and put it next to her seat, silently mourning that she wouldn't be able to wear that hat again.

Not long after the door was closed, the carriage began to move again.

Hange shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she felt a deep gaze stabbing her from the front. She tried to ignore it, choosing to look at anywhere but him.

When she looked at their legs and noticed how close she was to him. This was definitely the closest she's ever been to him, and she already made a mental note to avoid this situation in the future. Especially with how the carriage felt cramped with tension and silence that Hange was not familiar and comfortable with. She wanted to break the silence but she wasn't sure if he's in the mood for a conversation.

I guess this is what we're going to do for the next ten minutes.

She wanted to scream.

But then, a miracle happened.

"You look like a drenched cat." He suddenly remarked with his usual flat emotionless expression that immediately reminded her to a certain girl.

"Oh, yes… I guess so." She replied with an awkward smile.

He didn't reply, and instead she could feel him scanning her from up to bottom with his narrow eyes. By the look of his deep frown, he definitely didn't approve her decision that led her to this position.

She tried to ignore his gaze again by averting her eyes to the windows. Honestly, she just wanted to get over this trip and sleep.

"Here."

Hange looked back at him and saw him extending his hand toward her, there's a handkerchief neatly folded in his hand. She stared at him with her brows furrowed and mouth slightly agape.

"What?!" He was clearly irritated. "For your shitty glasses and your dumb face."

Hange stared at the handkerchief, then to him, then back to the handkerchief, and back to—

"Are you deaf?"

Hange gasped, "Ah, yes— I mean, no! Uhm, thank you... sir." She said before carefully taking the handkerchief from him.

Her hand fidgeted around the handkerchief, and when she tried to take off her glasses, she could feel her hand tremble under his gaze. Because, even if she didn't see him, she could tell that he was watching her.

Slowly, she started to rub the handkerchief to her glasses while thinking about other things, like…

"I assume you didn't plan on being drenched in the rain today."

Hange nearly dropped the handkerchief and her glasses when she heard him talk. She didn't remember him being the talkative one.

"No, this wasn't in the plan." Hange gave him a small smile.

"But you do look like someone who would enjoy this kind of thing."

She nodded, "I do, but not today."

He gave her a side glance, "You know this could be prevented if you take one of the carriage from the manor, right?"

"I know," She sighed before smiling, "But, I rather walk."

"Then, why didn't you bring your umbrella?"

Hange snorted, "I chose not to bring it, which in turn led to a series of unfortunate events."

"I'm not surprised."

"But! I don't want to take the full blame here, because I wouldn't be like this if I didn't get splashed by someone."

He furrowed his thin dark eyebrows, "Splashed?"

Hange let out an annoyed sigh and before she knew it, she told him about the event leading to this moment. It felt so weird but she could feel her body slowly lost its tension as she poured all of her feelings to him.

So, as soon as her realization hit her, she paused in the middle of her speech and gasped. "OH! I talked too much, am I? I am very—"

"No, it's fine." He cut her.

To her surprise, he didn't seem to be bothered by it. Although she started to wonder if he just wasn't capable of engineering other emotions.

"Let me get one thing straight." He continued, "So, you decided to walk in the rain because you got splashed?"

"Well, I already got wet from the puddle," Hange shrugged.

"Not your lucky day, huh?"

For the first time, she saw the corner of his mouth raised into a smirk. It was a quick one but she caught it, and somehow it made her warm.

"It seemed like it, but then I met you. I assume it's not so unlucky at all." Hange automatically smiled at him as she replied, but the smile slowly disappeared as she realized the implication of her words.

Too late though. She caught a glimpse of him looking at her with widened eyes, and Hange wanted to swallow her words back into her throat.

She let out another laugh before averted her gaze from him to focus on her other task, that is to wipe her face. But, as soon as she brought it to her face, she immediately noticed the smell of fresh soap with a hint of iris coming from the handkerchief.

Maybe he also sme—

Hange cleared her throat and quickly tapped her face dry before she finally wore her glasses again. She folded the handkerchief before glancing at him.

He was leaning back on his seat with hands folded and head lowered, hidden underneath his top hat. From her point of view, he didn't look like he wanted to be bothered.

It seemed that she should hold onto this for now.

Hange continued her previous activity of watching the road from the window, and she noticed that the rain had finally stopped. But, at the same time, she also noticed that her body started to shiver and tremble from the breeze coming from the small space near the window. Hange wanted to curl and hug herself, but —glancing at the person in front of him— she chose to do nothing.

Then, she heard a rustling sound coming from him. When she wanted to see what was that about, she didn't expect it to be him giving her his cloak.

He didn't say anything nor express anything.

But, oddly, she understood him.

Small and soft thank you fell from her mouth as she wore the cloak around her, feeling the warmness of his body that was still left on the fabric. Her nose immediately caught the familiar smell that she still remembered from his handkerchief.

Suddenly, she felt like the carriage became smaller and hotter.

The fact that he also stared at her didn't help it either.

"Uhm, is there something you wanted to say, sir?"

He narrowed her eyes, "Huh?"

"You stared at me, so I suppose you wanted to talk about something… sir?" She said but it came across as a question rather than answer.

"What?" He raised his voice, "I'm not looking at you, you just happen to be on my view. Can't you see that we are inside a freaking carriage? Where else should I fucking put my gaze to?"

Hange mentally took a step back.

Whoa.

Hange leaned back and stared at him blankly, "Right, I'm sorry, sir." She glanced at the windows before glancing back at him "Well, how about outside?"

"Outside?" He stared at her with creased brows.

"Yes, outside." She answered with a small smile before averting her gaze back to the windows, "You could look outside the windows. There's a lot of interesting things that you might be able to see, sir. Like— "

Then, something caught her eyes.

She immediately gleefully exclaimed, "Oh! Look at that!" She motioned her hand to him, as if asking him to join.

Hange could feel the questioning look that pierced through her body, but she didn't care.

"Like that, sir! Did you see that? There's a frog— ah poor him. Is he alone?" Then she gasped when she saw some more frogs near the lake, "Oh, there! Your family and friends are waiting for you!"

She glanced at him, "Did you see that, Mr. Ackerman?"

He stared at her for a while before finally glancing at the windows and nodded.

"Aren't they cute and interesting?" She cheered before gasping, "Oh! Did you know that frogs are oftentime confused with toads?"

"No."

"They are different sir! You see, that small creature we just saw is a frog because he hopped. Toads don't hop, they crawl because they have shorter legs. You could also tell by the living conditions, frogs live near water while toads don't. That's also why frogs' skin looked shinier or even slimier than toads." She explained, quickly glancing at him to see his reaction.

He nodded while still looking at the windows, "I see."

"Even their tadpoles are different. The frog tadpoles are slimmer with golden flecks, meanwhile the toad tadpoles are chunkier without any color other than black."

"You knew an awful lot about them. Were you spending your childhood looking at frogs and toads?" He remarked and it made Hange burst into a laugh.

"That was actually true! I used to live with my grandparents for a while. They live in a country, so I had a really big area to play and explore. One day, I found some tadpoles in the pond and I was so fascinated that I spent my time watching them, and as they grew, I noticed that there are two different kinds of tadpoles. When I asked my grandfather about it, he gave me his books about animals and plants. It was a really eye-opening experience, because ever since that day, I couldn't shut up reading, talking, and exploring around nature."

"I suppose you are similar to your grandfather."

"You are right again, sir!" She cheered, "But, he was a doctor who prefers to work with humans. Meanwhile, I prefer to work with animals and plants."

He hummed, "At least that explained why you get along with Erwin, fucking genius bastard."

Hange smiled at his comment, it was probably the nicest thing he ever said to her, "So you think I'm a genius?"

"Obviously, I wouldn't hire you if you aren't." He said like it was a fact. "I wouldn't even keep you around Mikasa if you are dumb."

Hange couldn't fight the happiness emerging from her, this was her first praise from her employer about her job. Her first praise ever from all of her jobs history. She felt herself softened as she looked at him and muttered, "Thank you."

Hange noticed that he immediately took his gaze back to the windows and muttered, "Yeah."

She decided to follow his gaze, watching how the sky became brighter than before, signalling that maybe, there'll be no more rain. Hange wanted to say something but her breath stopped when she saw that.

She automatically tapped his knee before pointing at the windows, specifically the sky.

"RAINBOW!" She shrieked as she glued her gaze to the windows. "Do you see it, sir?"

Hange had seen plenty of rainbows, but the one she saw today was different than usual. It looked brighter, clearer, and real. So much so that she felt like she could run on top of it.

"Isn't that beautiful?" She asked, looking at the sky with a wide smile.

She heard him humming before answering a short, "Yes."

The carriage arrived the manor exactly ten minutes later. It was probably the longest ten minutes Hange had ever spent with someone.

Hange sighed with glee.

Finally!

As the driver opened the carriage door, her employer was the first one to get off.

He probably wanted to be away from me as soon as possible.

She mentally sulked to herself.

"To think that I started to enjoy his company." She said that in her mind as she watched his figure disappear from her gaze. Hange took her hat and prepared to get off the carriage..

But then, she saw a clean white gloved hand being offered at her.

She blinked once.

She blinked twice.

She blinked thrice.

The hand didn't disappear.

She glanced to the owner of said hand and saw the familiar grey eyes staring back at her.

Yes, that is definitely his hand.

. . .

But why?

Well, obviously because he's a gentleman Hange!

It shouldn't become a surprise to see him do that.

He just wanted to help you.

That's all.

"What?" He suddenly interrupted her thought, eyes narrowed.

Shit, she probably spent the last seconds staring at him.

"Uh, nothing." Hange quickly answered.

Wait, why does she sound so meek.

The thing is… Hange wasn't wearing her gloves. She took it off because it got so wet and uncomfortable from the rain.

Hange stared back again at his hand, his clean and neat gloved hand.

Should I be touching that?

What if I stained his glove?

NO!

Stop it Hange, just do it. It would be rude to refuse him.

She took a deep breath, mentally slapping herself. Slowly, Hange reached for his hand as she walked out from the carriage.

Hange's eyes went wide as she felt his hand clenching around her as soon as she touched him. His hand is larger than but he was nowhere anything but gentle with her.

As soon as she stepped on the road, she immediately pulled her hand away, probably too soon.

"Thank you," She whispered, bowing her head slightly to him.

"Hurry up and clena yourself, I don't want you roaming around the manor looking like that." He instructed in usual flat voice.

"Yes, sir!" Hange answered, still bowing at him.

"Also, take off your shoes before you go inside."

"Yes, sir!"

"I'll tell them to prepare you a hot bath— and no, I don't take no for an answer. This is an order." He sternly said. "I will tell Mikasa that you took a half day off."

Hange was preparing to protest—

"Get rest, don't get sick."

Hange immediately raised her head, but too late, he had already gone away.

She heard it.

She heard it.

It was a mumble. if she wasn't paying any attention, she sure would miss it.

Hange's eyes went wide as she stared at his back that slowly disappeared into the manor.

Suddenly, she felt someone coming over to her, screaming something to her.

It was Moblit but she couldn't understand anything that he said. Hange felt her whole body freezes up and the only thing that she could feel was the warm buzz that came from her hand.

Today is definitely not so unlucky after all.

Levi felt a tap on her knee and suddenly he heard her saying something about rainbow and whether he saw it or not.

Didn't she know that they were looking in the same direction?

"Of course I saw it, four eyes. I'm not blind." He wanted to say that but then she saw her, sitting against the windows. Her eyes bright under the warm ray of sun, sparkling while looking at the sky. He could see the seven colors of the sky reflected in her face

But then, when he saw her mouth widened into a smile, he knew he was wrong.

It wasn't seven, it was eight.

There were eight colors.

"Isn't that beautiful?"

His gaze remained unmoved.

"Yes."

- Chapter 8 End -

Replies:

cherrylate: Thank you! I can't wait for you to see how the story will unfold from this point :D
AckerZoe: Thank you for enjoying this story *wink*

Notes

THIS IS MY FAVORITE CHAPTER (so far); I mean, you could say that I write this fanfic just to make this chapter HAHA
Period AU! is all about the yearning and subtlety *GOOD FOOD*
I nearly died writing this chapter ngl.

But I digress,,, Thank you so much for reading up until this point! Do share your thought :D
See you next chapter!