IT Girl and The Janitor

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin

Summary: A three-part romance story between an IT girl and the janitor.

"It's a proven fact in life that men are idiots," Petra Ral declared, angrily stabbing her chicken, her less than quiet voice drowned out by families and groups of teens walking around the foodcourt, discussing potential lunch options.

"Uh-huh." Erd, her friend and co-worker, nodded, watching her rant in amusement. "Does that include me?"

"Present company excluded."

"What about your dad?"

"Him too."

"Or that donut guy you're always claiming to be the most amazing and beautiful human being ever."

"You, my dad, and gay men."

"What about—"

"Dude, do you mind? I'm trying to vent and be stupidly angry right now."

"Apologies, Highness, continue ranting."

"Thank you. Now, where was I?"

"Most men are idiots."

"Yes, especially that assclown!"

"So, what did Oluo do now?"

"I was following your advice," Petra explained, "trying to approach him—with something I was fully capable of handling myself—so we could work together and have a friendlier relationship and all that and do you what the fucker has the nerve to say?" She doesn't wait for his reply. "Maybe you should have gone with interior design, women aren't good with computers."

"What a dick," Erd said sympathetically.

"He is! And Weilman was there so of course he had to add his two cents." As much as she disliked her irritating co-worker, she hated her boss's guts.

"You didn't say anything, did you?" Erd asked worriedly.

"No, I made an excuse and left before I started swinging."

"I know that must have sucked and taken a lot of self-control."

"It did. I walked away, but that doesn't mean I'll forget. I've had enough of ignoring him and thinking he'll stop."

Erd sighed. "What are you planning?"

"Payback," Petra replied brightly. "And I know just how..."

"Are you really going through with this?"

"Yes. And stop asking me that, someone might overhear. Besides, you had a chance to back out yesterday. Now stop talking and make sure there are no witnesses." With Erd keeping watch, Petra snuck into the large kitchen and opened the fridge, picking the can of cream soda and shaking it before putting it back."Mission accomplished." She gave her partner-in-crime a thumbs-up and they quickly moved down the hallway, pretending to have a conversation. "How's Rachel doing?"

"She's great. We were talking the other night about having a small party at the restaurant where we had our first date."

"That sounds amazing! Congratulations once again on your engagement." In her peripheral vision, Petra noticed Oluo turn up like clockwork and enter the kitchen, then she heard the fridge door being opened.

They continued their conversation until they heard their co-worker curse in surprise and fist-bumped. "Success." Erd grinned.

"Admit it," Petra said quietly, walking towards the kitchen, "it feels awesome."

"It does," he agreed.

"What happened?" Petra asked, taking the scene in with concealed glee. "Did you have a little accident?"

"What?! No! It's the stupid soda. It must have gotten all shook up during the drive."

"Right. Like I said, an accident."

Oluo groaned. "It's so sticky and gross. This is my favorite shirt, too!"

Those words pleased her very much and she turned to hide her grin. "I'll get the janitor." In his surprise, he'd dropped the soda can and the liquid had spilled on the floor. It was wet and they couldn't have someone slipping and hurting themselves. She found the janitor near the supply closet and quickly called him.

He turned and eyed her weirdly when she asked him to come with her. "The floor's very slippery right now. But it'll get sticky very soon and obviously, we don't want an infestation." She stopped walking to look over her shoulder to see if he was keeping up.

Levi quickly moved toward her. "Right, let me just grab some supplies."

Petra wondered why he looked almost surprised at the key he pulled out of his pocket as if he hadn't expected it to be there. She shrugged it off and led him to the mess. "There it is," she gestured to the small puddle and the orange can. Most likely Oluo had gone to clean up and Erd had no reason to lurk around the crime scene.

"What happened?"

"My idiot co-worker had an accident."

Levi observed the pleased expression on her face a dead giveaway. "You didn't have anything to do with it, did you?"

"W-What? Why—you, no!"

His face clearly said he didn't believe her. She had seemed very smug about the incident and her reaction to his out-of-the-blue question had been an obvious lie.

"Alright fine." Petra folded her arms over her chest defensively. "But he deserved it! He's been harassing me since the day I got here. I know the prank was stupid and very petty, but I don't care."

The janitor was frowning. "Shouldn't you tell HR? It's not right."

"That assclown may be a pain but," she rolled her eyes in exasperation and admitted almost grudgingly, "he's not bad at heart, like an overconfident immature teenage boy."

Levi's lips twitched into a smile. "Assclown?"

"Yup. Cause he's got a stupid clown face and he's an ass, therefore he's an assclown. Besides, compared to our dickhead boss, he's not that bad." The smile was replaced by a frown and Petra found herself missing it a little. He had a nice smile.

"If your boss is worse than the guy you pranked for being an assclown, shouldn't you—"

"Tell HR?" Petra shook her head, unable to explain to him the position it would put her in. "No, it's complicated. You wouldn't understand." Her boss was a total douche and his rude comments grated her nerves, but as far as the actual work and promotions went, there was no bias. Petra couldn't see anything good coming out of it and wanted to avoid unnecessary drama.

"No, guess I wouldn't." Levi shrugged, continuing to clean the floor.

"That's not what I—I didn't mean anything demeaning about your job by it," Petra said quickly, kneeling down, thinking her words had somehow offended him unintentionally. "I don't believe in there being small jobs and big jobs, each one is important and holds great importance in their own way," she tried to explain it as best as she could.

Unlike most people he had heard saying deep, meaningful things that sounded very quotable, he found hers the most genuine. She really meant what she said and he took a liking to her. "Okay." Levi stood. "I'm done."

"What about the sign? You know, the wet floor sign?"

"Oh. Right. That sign. It's my first day as a janitor."

That explains a lot. Petra smiled. "It's alright. I'll wait here until you get it and make sure no one slips."

After he finished tying the laces of his non-slip shoes, Levi closed his locker and grabbed his cart. He wasn't surprised to see a light in the upper right side of the wide office filled with half glass cubicles, white, gray, and blue in color. Pulling on gloves, he started from the back end, emptying trash cans and changing bags when needed.

He had gone through most of the cubicles—wrinkling his nose at the desks overflowing with papers and personal crap the occupants had scattered to make it their own—before Petra was able to find a good stopping point and acknowledge him.

"Hey, Levi."

"Petra. Working late again?"

"Yeah, I'm almost done."

Levi came over, curious to see what she was doing. "You understand all that? Looks like a whole different language to me."

"It is. It's a computer language."

Her desk had two photos, one of her parents and one of her dog. She had gushed about the golden retriever many times, telling him about the countless fond memories she had of him and how her beloved pet had eventually passed away. Levi didn't like people stepping into his personal bubble. But he had felt the urge to hold her, taking in her sadness and comforting her.

"How's your day been?" Petra asked, grabbing her bag.

Levi responded with a shrugged. "It was okay. I'm excited for next weekend."

"Yeah, me too!" She pulled on her coat. "I'm so glad they did a remake of the movie we talked about because the first one sucked so bad!"

"After I read the book, I was thrilled there was a live-action movie. 'Course I saw the trailer and knew it was total shit and didn't bother watching it."

Petra shook her head. "Trust me, you missed nothing."

Now's your chance to ask her out. Levi had been surprised to see one of his favorite books on her desk the previous week. They'd spent nearly half an hour talking about it and he'd made a plan when she had brought up the movie. Now the words were stuck in his throat. Spit it out!

What if she said no? He was a janitor. What if she thought he was being creepy? Levi felt uncomfortable at the idea of him asking her out and her turning him down because what would her friends think? Her parents? Fuck it. Jump in head first.

"You're headed home then?" Levi asked casually, trying to buy a few more seconds to build up the courage.

"Yeah, gotta get ready."

"Are you going out later?"

Petra nodded, smiling brightly. "I've got a date."

It took a lot for him not to show his disappointment. "Nice. Have fun."

"Thanks! You have a good evening."

He waved half-heartedly as she walked away. Levi looked down at his blue uniform and clutched his hair, groaning.

"Hey, Levi," Petra waved. He raised his hand when he walked by. She leaned back in her chair to see him walk to the last cubicle in the aisle across from her. One of her co-workers was fired the previous night. He must be cleaning the desk for the next person. She went back to work, occasionally glancing over to check on Levi.

"Hey, carrot-top." Oluo stood next to her, arms folded, a carefully placed casual expression on his face.

"I've told you not to call me that," she said in annoyance. "Now get lost."

"What's with the angry look? You should smile more, you look beautiful when you smile."

Petra didn't have the patience to deal with him. "Are you deaf as well as ugly?"

Oluo flinched. "What's gotten you in a mood? I was only gonna ask how your date went." This time, Petra flinched. And he didn't miss it. "So that's it." The swagger was back. "If you wanna have a good time, you should let a real man take you out."

Petra raised an eyebrow. "I don't see a real man." Levi walked up to them. She turned around fully in her chair and grinned. "I do now."

"What?" Levi said in confusion.

"So, Levi, I've been meaning to ask if you wanna go catch that movie we were talking about Friday."

"Yeah, sounds great," he replied, pleasantly surprised and happy. Oluo gaped at them, and Levi had a feeling he was missing something.

"Great. I'll text you the details later."

Levi nodded, he was definitely missing something. They didn't have each other's numbers. "I'll see you later," he told her. Then he looked at Oluo. "Assclown," he said and left with a smirk.

"What?" Oluo watched him walked away. "Assclown? What the hell?"

Petra smiled at her computer screen, typing away, "You better get back to work. Weilman will be back from lunch any minute now."

"Sorry about your date." Levi stood where Oluo had been standing hours earlier, happy to hear the news. Although he did feel bad she had gotten her hopes up and had them crushed.

"I'm so embarrassed," Petra groaned. "I thought Ian had been asking me out on a date, but he only wanted to meet up so he could talk about Rico and how to ask her out."

"At least he didn't find out you thought it was a date," Levi offered.

"True. And thank goodness he doesn't work here." Petra shuddered. "All the people I told about the date would've known and I'd have been so humiliated."

"See? Could've been worse."

"I'm sorry about earlier. Oluo found out my 'date' was crappy and was annoying the hell out of me."

"He likes you."

"No, he doesn't. He's an ass and he likes to mess with me."

"I'm a guy, trust me, he likes you. Like how little boys pull girls' hair on the playground because they like them."

"Well, you just gave a perfectly good reason why I can't like him back. He's an immature little shit."

Levi chuckled. "What time do you want to meet on Saturday?" He pulled out his phone. "I know you only asked me out to rub it in Oluo's face, but it doesn't mean we can't go watch the movie. It doesn't have to be a date," he added quickly.

"It'd be more fun than going alone. And I can tell you the facts they screwed up the last time and what scenes they botched completely—which was pretty much the entire movie."

"Sounds good to me," Levi said. He would use the chance for them to become actual friends and felt confident when he'd ask her out, she would say yes.

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