"What, is it really that unbelievable that I really can cook a good meal?"

"I didn't say it was good― But edible, yes."

"Alright, now you're just teasing me!" You tried to answer to his mischievous look with a pout, but couldn't help but to smirk yourself. "Well, at least it was 'edible enough' for you to clean up your plate, huh?" You nodded at the nearly empty plate in front of Levi. "And besides, I could do even better with proper ingredients― I had to get creative with the little I had, you know?" You shrugged lazily. "I even used the mushrooms I found from the backyard; I think they were porcinos..? I'm not sure. Oh well, what are the chances that they're poisonous?"

You had to muster all your strength not to show any reaction when you saw the color quickly fade from the face of your dinner guest― But what crowned it all was that how the last forkful of food halted in mid-air on its way up. Unable to hold it in anymore, you bursted out in a loud laughter. "You should've seen your face!" You giggled almost hysterically. "I was just messing with you; I grew up in the countryside, I can tell poisonous mushrooms from edible ones..!"

"Alright, you got me―" Levi sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples as if to tell you how annoyed he was about your jesting. You could tell, though, that he was having a hard time not to show his own amusement. "Just cut it out, will you?" He added when your laughing attack showed no sign of ending.

"Fly agaric casserole… That would be something..!" You chuckled and wiped tears of laughter from the corners of your eyes as you stood up to collect the plates.

"Poison mushrooms or not, thank you for the dinner." Levi smiled shortly. "First and last meal cooked by you I'll ever eat, that's for sure..."

"Aw come on, don't tell me you got mad at me?" You gave him a pout over your shoulder as you headed to kitchen. "I was only joking!"

"Oh, you wanted to make this a habit?" The mischievous tone of his voice made it clear he was only teasing you again, but his words still made your cheeks flush bright red of embarrassment. Luckily for you, you were already hiding out of sight in the kitchen when he said this.

"Make this a habit… Tch!" You repeated his words under your breath and rolled your eyes, trying to cool the heat off by pressing your hands against your flaming cheeks. "Using every possible moment to tease me, aren't you? Damn Heichou..! But… I wouldn't mind making this a habit, though..." Letting out a tiny sigh, you were about to continue loading the dishes into the sink when a movement you saw from the corner of your eye made you jump― You spun around to see Levi at the doorway. "Geez, do you have to sneak around like that? Almost gave me a heart attack..!" You scoffed, turning your attention back on the dirty dishes.

"Just to be clear, I wasn't sneaking around." Levi stated in his usual uninterested tone. "You, instead, were too troubled with your thoughts to notice anything around yourself."

"Thanks for pointing it out…" You mumbled quietly enough for him not to hear, trying to focus on washing the dishes.

"Care to lighten your heart?"

You felt every hair on your body stand up when his voice came from much closer than earlier― Not even daring to peep over your shoulder, you kept your gaze down, but you could tell he was just barely standing out of your immediate presence.

"N-no, not really..!" You finally managed to spit out an answer. "It's nothing."

"Hm." He was quiet for a moment, trying to decide if he was going to be satisfied by your answer or not. "Alright then. It's not like I believe you, but I'm not going to push it."

"Just gimme a break, will you?" Now his attitude was just starting to piss you off. "Do you honestly always have to act like you have everything fi-" You turned around to face him, but froze instantly after finding his face only inches away from yours. "-gured out..?" You whimpered the end of a sentence with a shaky voice, unable to break the almost hypnotizing eye contact you two had locked into. You knew Levi had been standing too close to comfort, but you hadn't expected him to be right behind your back! "...the hell you're staring at..?! Stop it!" Were you commanding him or yourself in your mind, you didn't know. Squeezing a wooden ladle in your grip almost painfully hard, you felt a sudden urge to whack him into the face with it― That would be enough to break you out of the situation, for sure..! Luckily for him, Levi took a step back before you were forced to use desperate measures.

"So… Where did you grew up?" Levi broke the awkward silence by changing the topic. "You said you're from the countryside." He said as he stepped next to you and grabbed a kitchen towel, now lazily leaning against the counter to wait for you to finally snap out of it.

"I… yeah." You nodded after returning to the reality, handing the ladle and some other washed dishes to Levi as you continued. "I'm from Deil. It's- I mean… it was a smallish farming village in south of Wall Maria." You paused for a short moment, secretly glancing at Levi before speaking again. "But you most probably already knew that― I don't know why I bother telling you these things… or why you even ask. Well, you're probably just trying to have a conversation, but still." You sighed, handing another clean plate to him. Levi had done thorough background check on you, so he knew pretty much everything about you and your past. "And I know nothing about him." Even after spending all this time with him, you still had no idea who he truly was as a person or what his motives were.

"That is true―" Levi raised his brow slightly as his lips curled up to a little smile. "But that doesn't mean I know everything about you."

"Oh? But would you like to know?" You secretly rolled your eyes. "That's something he would say if the roles would be reversed… such a tease he is."

"You got quite a place, I have to admit." Levi scanned the room with his gaze as he spoke. "Getting a residence from the interior isn't an easy task."

"Tell me about it…" You said quietly, trying to focus on finishing washing the dishes― You really didn't like the direction this conversation was going to.

"People often join to the military police to get an easy, safe life behind the inner walls―" He clicked his tongue between the sentences. "Was that your motivator as well?"

"Yes."

"Oh?" Levi sounded a bit surprised by your straight answer. "Well, at least you're honest about it. Looks like you've done pretty well; According to the paperwork, you got this place after merely a year of service."

"Don't you fucking go there..!" You already knew what he was about to say next, and you really didn't want to hear it. Your breathing was growing more and more shallow as you waited for him to continue, making you feel lightheaded as if you were a little tipsy from the wine you had at the dinner. At the moment you really wished it had been the case.

"A rather large residence, isn't it?" His eyes glued onto the back of your neck, Levi weighed his next words carefully. "For one, at least."

"They're all dead!" Before you even realized what you were doing, a loud crash of shattering glass exploded in the room as you spun around to face Levi― Small shards of a glassware you had violently bashed to the floor still rained down as you released all the fury inside of you. "There! Now I've said it! You happy now?!" For half a decade you hadn't spoke a word about your family or what had happened to them; Only thinking back to those events made your blood run cold and your chest tighten so bad you could barely breathe. Your insides burning like after a three mile run, you clenched your teeth together as you tried to contain yourself. "You've read the reports, you knew my family died that day..! But you just had to come here and make me say it!"