Chapter 2

Petra had ended up staying at the coffee shop until they'd closed still working on her essay, and then had stayed up well into the early morning hours of the next day back in her dorm room continuing to work on it. Oddly enough, Levi had stayed with her up until they left the coffee shop, and even offered to walk her back to her dorm.

"Campus rape is getting more common, you know. It's not safe for you to walk alone."

She politely, and hesitantly after his blunt comment, declined the offer, though let him know it was sweet of him. Her dorm was just a block away from the coffee shop, so she'd be safe inside in no time flat. Besides, she didn't want to keep him any longer from the mounds of homework he undoubtedly had himself. She didn't know what kind of homework culinary students got, but seeing as he was a senior, she was sure there was a lot of it. They went their separate ways.

Honestly, she had taken a bit of Levi's advice and bullshitted some of the essay just to get it done. She was horrible at talking about herself, probably due to her general shyness. So she had made some stuff up, though nothing too extreme, to make herself sound a bit more interesting than she really was. It seemed to go over well, and everyone in the class bought it when she told them that her parents owned a summer home in Japan that she spent countless days at during the year (The fact that she'd learned some basic Japanese phrases from watching anime helped solidify this lie).

The next couple of weeks continued on with relative monotony. She attended her classes and when she wasn't sitting behind a desk, she was in her regular booth at the coffee shop, hunched over her stacks of homework. She studied musical pieces and different dances, both famous and amateur, via Youtube on her phone to conduct which style of dance would fit best with which piece. She researched the history of theater in textbooks she swore were older than she was. On Tuesdays and Fridays, she attended her drama group after classes. They were thinking of producing their own musical and Petra, whose mind was always running wild with crazy ideas, suggested they create a story about a brave group of soldiers who fight against vicious giants to reclaim humanity's freedom.

She didn't see Levi again until midterms were almost upon them. The weather was gradually getting colder, and Petra spent more and more of her days after classes huddled up in the warm coffee shop with a cup of her favorite hot chocolate. The homework continued to pile up, literally, and she didn't even notice the man until he plopped down on the bench opposite her in the booth. Petra jumped, putting a hand to her chest as if it would calm her rapidly beating heart. "Sheesh! Don't scare me like that!"

Levi glared at the tall stack of books on the table that had hid her view of him until he'd been close enough to attack her. Not that he wanted to, of course. "I wasn't aware Drama kids had this much homework…"

"Me neither…" Petra groaned, flipping absentmindedly through the pages of the paper she was writing on Shakespeare's King Lear. She sighed and sat back in the bench, reaching out for her drink to take a sip. Levi had obviously just come in from outside, as he brought a waft of cold air with him when he sat down, and the hot cocoa warmed her up from the inside out. "I haven't seen you in a while. Have you been super busy, too?"

"Not really. I usually just avoid people."

Petra laughed, not really surprised by his introversion. "Yet you made a beeline straight for my table."

Levi raised a slender eyebrow at her. "You're a person?"

"Oooh, you make jokes now!" Petra laughed, leaning a bit across the table. "Here I thought you were an ice-cold hardass last time we met."

"Who says I'm not?"

"Pfft."

Levi rolled his eyes, getting up from the booth to order his drink at the counter. While he was gone, Petra tidied up her homework mess a a bit and pulled out some homework that would be a bit easier to do while she had a distraction at the table with her, which happened to be a math worksheet. Along with all her drama and theater classes, she was taking one general course each semester, starting with her most dreaded subject of math. She figured maybe Levi could help her with it if he was going to be sitting with her.

He returned a few minutes later, drink in hand, and sat down across from her again. "Calculus?"

"Mhmm… wanna do it for me? I'll buy you another… whatever that is." She said, motioning to his drink. Though she spent as much time inside a coffee shop as she did, she wasn't actually a huge fan of coffee itself and didn't know much about it. She preferred hot chocolate and the occasional tea.

"Caffé Americano with five espresso shots." Levi muttered, taking a sip of said drink with his fingers curled over the top of the cup, just like last time. "And I think if the average human consumed more than one of these a day, they'd have a heart attack."

Petra shivered. "That much caffeine, huh?"

"Want to try it?" He held his cup out to Petra, and she looked at her reflection in the pitch-black liquid. Tentatively, she took it and sipped just the tiniest bit out of the opposite edge of the rim that he had drank from. She immediately wanted to spit it out, clamping a hand over her mouth and squeezing her eyes shut to try and force herself to swallow it. She shook her head in a violent shiver.

"It's so bitter! How can you stand to drink that!?"

"It's an acquired taste, but it'll wake you the fuck up when you need it." And then Petra saw something she was sure was a rare sight. For just a split second, Levi had a genuine smile on his face. His features were softened, a bit more life shown in his icy eyes and he didn't look so tired. But, just as quickly as it had come, it was gone again. Though the image remained imprinted into Petra's mind, causing a smile to rise to her own lips.

"So, you never answered my question. Wanna do my homework for me?" Petra asked, waving the worksheet in his face.

"No," Despite his words, he still snatched it from her and turned it over to look at the front. She watched his eyes as they jotted over the page from left to right, top to bottom. He then handed it back to her. "But I'll help you with it… it's really easy once you know what you're doing."

He spent the next ten minutes explaining to her how the problems were supposed to be done, in much more clarity than her teacher had, and even walked her through a few problems without outright giving her the answers. After that, he sat in silence sipping his drink and starting out the window while she worked on the rest of them herself. He was right, it was really easy once you knew what you were doing. And, since he had helped her, she now knew exactly what she was doing. A half hour later, the worksheet was done.

"Wow, thanks Levi… I hope you're not planning on disappearing for another month because it would be the coolest thing ever to get you to help me with this crap every day."

He was silent, and Petra thought for a moment she had said something wrong.

"Though, I'm sure you have your own homework to do, so if you need to get back to it…"

He shook his head, "Don't worry about my homework. It's not as intense as you may think. Besides, why do you think I drink these?" He lifted his cup slightly towards her before bringing it to his lips again and Petra worked the pieces together.

"So that you can stay up… is that why you look half-dead? Because you never sleep?"

"I don't know whether I should be insulted for being told I look half-dead, or grateful for your feigned concern."

Petra puffed out her cheeks. "It's not feigned! Not getting enough sleep is a huge cause of other illnesses, physical and mental! You could do some serious damage to your health."

He was silent again, choosing to look out the window instead of at her. Petra sighed, getting up from the booth. This got his attention, and he looked up at her curiously.

"I'll be right back." She stated, giving him a small smile. She strode up to the counter and looked at the various baked goods behind the glass display case. She decided on two slices of pecan pie, the shop's specialty since the Holidays were growing closer. She made the payment and headed back to her table with two plates, not surprised to see that Levi hadn't moved a muscle since she left. He was still starting out the window, like an imprisoned man who wished he could fly freely with the birds he saw outside his cell. He looked toward her again when she set one of the plates down in front of him.

"What's this?"

Petra smiled, sitting down with her own plate of pie. "It's a thank you, I guess. For helping me with my homework. Hope you like pecan!"

Levi stared at the piece of pie for a second before helping himself, and Petra did as well. She had to admit, it was some of the best pecan pie she'd ever had. Though, she'd heard that everything was better when you're in good company.


A/N: Let me know what you think, please!~