Civilian-Petra Part II

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin

Previously: Levi finds an amazing tea shop and strikes up a friendship with the owner, Petra.

It was a lazy Friday evening and Squad Levi was relaxing from a tough day of training. Having finished their dinner, they were sitting around playing cards together, a favorite pastime of theirs as a group.

After complaining about the harsh training, as usual, they'd landed on the subject of their captain. "I wonder where he keeps going every other Saturday." Connie leaned back in his chair.

Jean shrugged, uninterested. "Who knows?"

"It's been months and he hasn't said a word," Armin said.

"Why does it matter?" Mikasa asked. "What he does during his private time is his business."

"C'mon, Mikasa, doesn't it make you a little curious?" Eren asked.

"No."

"We should follow him one day," Sasha said suddenly.

Five pairs of incredulous eyes turned in her direction. "Are you crazy, Potato Girl?" Jean pulled one of her bangs.

"Do you have a death wish?" Connie scoffed. "He'll kill us."

"I'm just so bored."

"Suppose we were to follow him—"

"Armin, are you serious?"

"I'm saying if we were to follow him. Not that we actually will. So, what do you think he's been up to?"

"Something boring, no doubt," Mikasa answered.

"Or maybe we'll find something scandalous." Connie waggled his eyebrows.

"Like what?" Jean asked.

"I don't know. What's an embarrassing hobby?"

Eren shook his head. "You guys are crazy."

Sasha sighed. "We've nothing else to do."

"What if we all went to town together?" Eren suggested. "It's getting dull hanging around here every weekend. Historia's queen now. I don't have to be under house arrest all the time. I can leave the castle grounds with you guys."

"I do have some things I need to buy," Mikasa said.

Connie nodded. "Yeah, me too."

"Where should we go, then?" Jean said. "Karanes district? It's close and pretty big."

Sasha was in. "Sounds good to me."

"There's a bookstore there I've been meaning to visit." Armin smiled, thinking about the smell of old books.

"Everyone's in agreement?" Jean received nods from the group. "Then we'll go tomorrow after Captain Levi leaves."

"Where should we go first?" Sasha looked around excitedly. Men and women walked while children ran around, laughing. She sniffed the air. "Ah, it smells so good! Should we get a snack?"

"We just had lunch before we left, Sasha." Eren rolled his eyes. "You can't be hungry already."

"Armin, since you already have a destination in mind, should we go there first?" Mikasa turned to him.

"If it's okay with everyone."

The next couple of hours they spent wandering from shop to shop, looking at whatever struck their fancy. They were walking around aimlessly when they came to a realization and started arguing.

"What do you mean you didn't tell the captain?" Jean demanded.

"I thought you were going to," Eren replied defensively. "It was your idea to come here."

"But you're the one who first brought up leaving HQ."

"You're the one he left in charge that one time so that practically makes you the second-in-command. Doesn't the responsibility fall on your shoulders?"

"You guys, stop fighting." Sasha held up her hands. "You're being too loud."

"Yeah. Besides, it's the weekend. We're off duty." Connie shrugged. "We can go wherever we want."

"But Eren isn't just any soldier," Armin said. "I'm pretty sure even if he's allowed to leave, we still have to tell someone where he is in case of an emergency."

"Do you think we'll get in trouble for not doing that?" Eren said worriedly.

"Captain Levi always leaves and comes back like clockwork," Mikasa pointed out. "Nothing to worry about."

"That's right," Connie agreed. "We know when he'll return so we'll make sure to beat him back."

"Just to be on the safe side, let's leave so we can get to HQ an hour before him." Armin's words were met with nods of agreement.

Sasha's stomach then growled loudly. "How about we go get food now?"

"Any preferences on where you want to eat?" Jean questioned.

Most of them shrugged.

"I know a place," Connie said. "It's close and I've heard lots of good things about it from a guy who's from here."

"Connie, how much longer?" Sasha complained.

"We're almost there."

"That's what you said ten minutes ago," Mikasa said.

Jean looked annoyed. "Admit it, we're lost."

"Let's just eat at the next restaurant we see," Eren suggested.

Armin nodded. "I'm too hungry to care."

"But we're almost—" Connie froze.

"What? Are we here?" Sasha looked around eagerly. "Which one is it? This one?" She gestured to the place they were standing in front of.

"Connie, you might wanna close your mouth before something flies in," Jean advised.

The short teen lifted his hand and pointed. "What is it?" Armin asked curiously. They followed their stunned teammate's gaze.

Their jaws unhinged at the sight.

Across the street was a small brown building. Through the window, they made out a very familiar face sitting across from a stranger. A very pretty stranger. A very pretty female strange.

"Is that Captain Levi?" Mikasa's eyes were wide. "Having tea with a woman?"

"Holy Maria!" Sasha was grinning wildly. "He's on a date!" She squealed in excitement.

"Of course!" Jean slapped his forehead. "We missed the most obvious answer!"

"Captain Levi has a girlfriend!" Eren gaped. "And she's...surprisingly beautiful." That earned him a look from Mikasa he didn't notice.

"Yeah," Connie was finally able to speak. "She's much better looking than him. How did he land her? Definitely not with that award-winning personality of his."

Mikasa shrugged. "He is the most famous soldier in the last hundred years."

"I don't think Captain Levi would go for that." Armin shook his head. "It wouldn't be real, you know?"

"Let's sit down!" Sasha led them to a large table big enough to seat all six of them. She would have been glad for the shade if weren't for the jaw-dropping situation. A waitress came over and they quickly gave their orders, suddenly not too picky about the food.

"Look at him," Connie said, amazed. "Is it just me or does he seem almost happy?"

"I can't believe he's been hiding her from us," Eren said.

"If I had a girl that like, I'd hide her from you clowns too." Jean rolled his eyes. "You might scare her off."

"If she can not only put up with him but actually enjoy being with him, I don't think she'll scare that easy," Mikasa said.

"She looks like such a sweet person," Sasha cooed. "They look so cute together!"

And so, Squad Levi sat and spied on their captain, gossiping about how they met and who asked whom out first.

"My money's on Captain Levi," Connie declared.

Eren nodded. "He's so fearless." He couldn't see the man backing down from anything.

"Nah," Jean disagreed, "he strikes me a little too emotionally stunted to make the first move. My money's on the redhead."

"I'm with Jean." Mikasa had thought she'd stay neutral, like Armin, but had somehow found herself caught up with the rest of the nosy gossipers. Although in her defense, Armin had caved, too.

"Yeah," Armin said. "I've heard some stuff about what he's been through. I don't think he's too good with things like being in romantic relationships. He would be awkward and self-conscious."

"Oh she definitely had to be the one to ask him," Sasha said.

"But why does he only visit her twice a month?" Connie wondered. "And not even for the whole weekend. Only for a couple of hours."

"We've already established he's emotionally constipated," Jean pointed out. "I bet they're taking things at his pace, very slow, so he's not overwhelmed."

They all nodded wisely at each other.

Sasha suddenly gasped. "Duck!" Hastily, the squad bowed their heads and lifted their shoulders. She took a quick peek and relaxed. "Okay, we're good. He looked this way," she explained.

Jean, Eren, and Mikasa, who were the tallest thus forced to sit with their backs to Tea Garden's front windows to cover the other three, glanced back quickly. "I don't think he noticed us," Eren said.

"Obviously. If he had, he'd have stormed out and strangled us all," Jean said.

Armin looked at the tall tower with the clock. "Guys, we should leave now if we wanna make it back early."

Sasha pouted. "Aw, but I wanna see the end of their date."

"Yeah." Connie nodded. "I wanna see if the captain will kiss her." He snickered.

"Don't be such a pervert," Mikasa scolded.

"I'm not! I just want to see he'd capable of touching another human to do something other than inflict pain."

They all paused to picture that in their heads.

Eren huffed. "Great, now you've turned us all into perverts, just like you."

The idea of seeing their apathetic and detached captain showing physical affection to another person was tempting. "It's not worth our lives. Let's go," Jean said.

Levi could feel something was off the moment he set foot in the room.

"What?"

His squad was watching him with stupid smiles on their faces, except for Mikasa. Although even she seemed to have a curious gleam in her eyes.

"Wipe those creepy looks off your faces."

They quickly morphed their expressions, trying to look normal.

"So, Captain, how was your day?" Sasha asked casually.

"Fine," he answered almost warily.

"That's good," Eren said, nodding.

"Do anything interesting?"

"None of your business, Kirstein."

They all shared a tiny glance with their neighbor like he wouldn't notice, standing right in front of them. "Alright, what did you brats do?" Levi demanded.

"Captain." Connie pouted dramatically. "I'm hurt you think so poorly of us, your precious squad! We mostly sat around and talked and ate while you were gone. It was like we were barely here!"

A little on the nose there, Connie. Armin thought nervously.

Levi, for his part, only rolled his eyes at the tone.

"Captain Levi, will you be leaving the Saturday after the next again?" All eyes were on Sasha.

"Why?" Levi asked, on guard once more.

"Armin, Eren, and I were thinking about going to Sasha's village with her," Mikasa spoke quickly, not trusting Sasha not to blurt something suspicious, earning her a pout from the perpetually hungry teen.

"Yeah," Jean jumped in. "In fact, Connie and I were thinking of tagging along."

Connie nodded enthusiastically next to him. If the others were going to spy on their captain and his girlfriend, he wanted in. "We thought we'd get away for a weekend. Go into the mountains and enjoy the fresh air."

"Does Eren need permission to leave?" Mikasa asked.

"I don't think it'll be a problem, especially since you're all going. As long as we know where he will be. I'll talk to the commander about it."

"Thanks, Captain Levi," Eren said.

Levi nodded. They're making those faces again. Feeling a little creeped out, he decided to take his leave. "I'll see you at dinner."

With one last look at his strange kids, Levi went to his room, feeling befuddled.

"We have a problem."

Instinctively, the others collectively ducked their heads.

Mikasa sighed. "Captain Levi didn't look this way. I can't even tell." She gestured to herself with her back to Tea Garden.

"Then what's the problem?" Connie asked.

"Us," she said bluntly. "We're the problem. This is the third time we're spying on them."

"It's not our fault Captain Levi won't tell us so we have to resort to this."

"Sasha, that is terrible logic." Armin sighed and said, "And I think Mikasa's right."

"But it's so fun," Sasha whined.

"It kinda is," Jean admitted.

"Yeah," Eren said, a little embarrassed.

They looked at one another.

"We're so pathetic," Armin said. "We should—"

"Look!" Sasha pointed excitedly.

Five heads immediately snapped in the direction of the tea shop to catch a glimpse of their captain tucking a lock of soft looking ginger hair behind her ear.

"That is a boyfriend move, right there!"

"C'mon, Sasha, he is a neat freak and maybe it was just bothering him—"

"Armin, you shush! Don't ruin this for us!"

They're so invested. Armin thought. One day, we're gonna get caught.

"She's still blushing."

"I still can't understand what she sees in him."

"Their babies will be adorable!"

"Just think, you could be Auntie Mikasa sometime in the near future."

"I do like the sound of that."

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